Obama's big risk: The words he didn't say

Barack Obama’s foes, in candid moments, will often acknowledge that his most impressive trait is self-confidence. He has a sense of his own destiny, and an inner poise to keep focused on it even amid setback and distraction.

Barack Obama’s admirers, in candid moments, will often acknowledge that his most unappealing trait is excessive self-regard. That’s when confidence curdles into an arrogance that can cause him to misread his circumstances and underestimate his opposition.

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Obama’s full inaugural speech

POLITICO LIVE: Speech analysis

In this light, it’s worth pondering: How will Barack Obama’s supremely self-confident second inaugural address — with its high quotient of self-regard and minimally concealed contempt for opponents — be remembered 10 years from now?

It seems entirely possible this will be seen as a signal event — the moment when Obama let go of caution, gave up imagining he could persuade or find common ground with conservatives and put the world on notice that he was ready to fight for a liberal agenda and roll right over his opponents. This belief is why many Democrats were enthralled with Obama’s address.

It seems just as possible that it will be remembered forlornly — a moment when Obama naively imagined that fortune was in his favor and did not reckon with how events, and opponents, might have other plans in store.

Under either scenario, it’s worth noting that big presidential speeches are often looked back upon not only for what was in them — but also what wasn’t. George W. Bush’s first inaugural address hailed civility but made no mention of the quietly, but rapidly, building threat of Islamic terrorism.

Obama’s speech — whether harbinger of a history-making second term or high-water mark before the fall — was remarkable not only for his ambitious words but for several things that were notably absent:

The World

There was no audience more disappointed than the small cadre of foreign policy and national security experts eager to hear if Obama would use the occasion to articulate some new direction for America’s role in the world. What they got was a couple of lines signaling that Obama wants an end to an era of “perpetual war” and that projecting American influence requires not just “force of arms” but also strong alliances and “rule of law.” The remarks were in keeping with the liberal spirit of Obama’s address, but they were in no way developed into a larger argument.